DIY File Cabinet Desk

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I’m here for another round of The Home Depot Gift Challenge! I’m really enjoying teaming up with some of these amazing ladies and really getting my creative juices rolling! In this challenge (if you are new here) we are to take one item from The Home Depot and create something with that item. We are not sponsored by Home Depot; we just love their products and visit them frequently!

This month’s challenge item was furniture legs. I had a whole idea planned out but then I needed to make a desk for my guest room so I changed it all last minute. I just redid my guest room for the One Room Challenge and I wanted to create an oasis for my guests as long as a work area for myself. Not only do we choose an item from The Home Depot but we also do it as a gift for a specific person. This month’s gift was for your mother in law. My mother and father in law recently visited and unfortunately I was not finished with the room but I can’t wait for them to visit again to see all of the changes. I want to be able to sit at my table and maybe do a craft with my mother in law and daughter. A family that crafts together stays together….that’s a saying, right?! Haha If you want to see the whole room transformation you can see it here.

Onto the tutorial….here are the items that you will need to complete this project:

I had an old file cabinet that needed a little TLC and I thought I could create a little crafting desk with it! The first step I did was to mod podge the wrapping decorative paper I had onto the front of the cabinet. I removed the handles and applied a thin layer of mod podge directly to the file cabinet fronts and smoothly applied the cut to size paper to the front of the cabinets. I let it dry for about an hour or so and any smaller wrinkles that were showing were gone! I love mod podge!!

The next step was to spray paint the file cabinet white. I had my husband carry it outside to the garage. We have had an unusually warm November here in Minnesota so I’m taking full advantage of spray painting while I can. You can’t typically spray paint in weather below 50 degrees so I always spray paint when I’m able to! I go quite a few months of no spray painting during the winter months! I did not spray paint the top of the cabinet as I wanted to have a clean service to adhere it to the wood. I also spray painted the original black handles gold.

I also spray painted the legs and the piece of wood for the top of the desk white to match. I really wanted a clean, crisp look for the desk. The next step was to cut the legs down to size. They were too tall so my husband stood them next to the file cabinet and drew a line across the edge of the furniture leg from the top of the file cabinet. This way it measured perfectly with the height of the file cabinet.

He went outside and cut the legs with our circular saw. Then we sanded down the edges of the leg and set the table up to how we liked it. My husband then drilled large wood screws into the top of the table top through the top of the legs to secure them. I didn’t want the screws to show so I put a layer of wood filler on top of the screws.

After the wood filler was dry I sanded it and painted over it with white paint! Now you can’t even tell there are screws there! The final step was to do a thin coat of gorilla glue to the top of the file cabinet. You may want to sand down the area a little to give it a rough area to adhere to. Once you have the gorilla glue on the top (don’t make it too thick as gorilla glue can grow) lay the table on the top where you want it to stay exactly. You can either clamp it down or just put some heavy books on top! That’s what I did. Once it’s all dry you can decorate your table and you are ready to go!

How adorable is it?! I’m super happy with how it turned out and I’m so excited to create my first craft on it! Now head on over to these talented ladies and see what they created with furniture legs. Every month I am just amazed by their talent and creativity! I feel very fortunate to be a member of this group! Thanks ladies! Happy Sunday everyone and keep your eyes peeled for two big posts I have this week! I’m SOOO excited about them and can’t wait to share them you all!

Hi, Ruthie ~ This crafting desk is great! I especially like how you redid your file cabinet. That wrapping paper is perfect! Looks like you have a space all your own in which to craft. :0) Great job on this month’s challenge!Tiffany recently posted…DIY Medallion Christmas Ornaments

It looks great. What is the official name of the wrapping paper or where did u get it? I want to do something like this to my kitchen cabinet doors. I can’t seem to look the material I’ve seen used before. Any suggestions?

Thank you so much! I don’t have the official name of the paper but I bought it at JoAnn Fabrics. It was called something like designer paper. Are you going to put this on with modge podge? Otherwise look into some contact paper for you cabinet doors.